Trickster
by lestrangeservant
Summary: Runa has just been recruited by Tony Stark for her many superhuman powers to join the Avengers, and soon she is thrown into the heat of battle, helping to save the world while falling in love, getting her heart broken and having an amazing adventure. Set from Age of Ultron onwards. Please comment what you think and of course, I own no characters except for Runa.
1. chapter 1

Runa was practically bouncing off the walls of the plushy limo as it drove her through the streets full of Manhattan skyscrapers. Excitment had been bubbling in her stomache all through the drive from her skate park to the Avengers Tower.

Beside her, sat the one and only Tony Stark, keenly watching his newest catch. The teen had wild shoulder-length brown hair that clearly hadn't been brushed recently, surrounding a pale face, clear of any blemishes. Her peircing blue eyes alternated from the windows on either side of the vehicle. Looking at them, Tony couldn't help but be reminded of the girl's Scandinavian roots and that, in turn, reminded him of the awesome powers that she weilded.

As always, Tony had been on the lookout for people gifted with combat skills, incredible powers or genetic... conveniences, as he had once joked. A news story had caught his eye of a girl in New York having stopped a truck from hitting a family. Although there had been no good quality footage of the incident, Tony had still spotted the tell-tail glow of a forcefield.

Runa had been hard to find though, since no records were lodged of her birth and she had never stepped foot inside of a school. Eventually though, after transactions being made to the right bank accounts, she had been tracked to a small skate park nestled between the high-rise apartments and office blocks.

Runa had been happy to show Tony her various abilities but recruiting her had been a different matter entirely. The girl clearly had a tightly knit community among the children of the skate park and was weary of leaving them. An afternoon of observation had showed Tony that not only was the girl incredibly powerful, but also really kind to others around her. Not only did she protect kids from nasty falls through the use of her forcefield, but also acted as a big sister to them all.

As always, though, Tony had gotten what he wanted and now they were only minutes away from the Avengers' Tower where the rest of the team were waiting. Tony had, as usual, failed to enclose any details on the recruit, seeing it fit to allow them to introduce themselves, also secretly enjoying the annoyance it caused the others.

The limo eventually turned up the narrow laneway and up towards the manicured lawns surrounding the great Avengers' Tower. Runa turned to the scientist beside her who was now fiddling with his phone. She could tell just from looking at his face that he had had many a sleepless night recently. While a stubbley beard was a usual feature of his, the dark bags beneath his eyes painted a much bigger picture.

"Mr Stark?" Runa was suddenly engulfed in nerves. Tony looked up. "Don't tell the others about my father yet, if that's okay. I think its a matter that will have to be broken to them in a" she thought for a moment, "particular way."

"Sure," Tony shrugged. "I'll leave it to you. But I want it done today so we can kick-start the next part of our mission."

The limo stopped and Runa got her first look at her five soon-to-be teammates. They were all standing at the base of the tower, eyes fixed on the window which she now looked through. Runa found herself thanking the gods that every window of the limo was made of tinted glass. She took what little time she had left to make a mental image of these heroes in front of her.

Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, had had his back turned to her as the limo pulled up. Upon turning, Runa was granted a full view of his star-spangled attire. His shield, usuallyattached to his forearm, was instead merely held by his side. A sign of peace perhaps? Or maybe he just wasn't expecting a fight.

Runa next set her gaze upon the Avenger with whom Rogers had been conversing. Thor was clearly at ease with the whole situation, leaning casually against the base of the building that was providing a shade for him. Her eyes were drawn to his muscular chest and stomach that were clearly visible beneath his armour, leading Runa to wonder how many woman were seduced by his body alone? Mjolnir was standing on the ground by his foot, its metal seeming to be glowing a cool blue. On his face, Thor wore between a smirk and a dazed expression, almost like he didn't know what was happening but still found humour in everything.

To Thor's right was Bruce Bannor, alter ego of The Hulk. Looking at him now, it was hard to believe than the awkward bespectacled man could turn into the mean, green, fighting machine. Bannor wore matching grey trousers and jacket over a navy shirt. He clearly stood out from the rest of the Avengers based on his passive attire, but maybe that was on purpose Runa thought.

Standing by Bannor was the infamous Black Widow, or Natasha Romanoff by day. _D_ _ang!_ Runa thought. Her breath was absolutely taken away by the woman's incredible body, perfectly shown off by her clingy leather jumpsuit. Runa shook herself. She couldn't let herself get distracted. Romanoff seemed to be standing strangely close to Bannor Runa noted. Much closer than friends would have she thought.

Last of the team was Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, probably the best archer known in history. His bow was out and, alarmingly, had an arrow notched. Even though the arrow was aimed at the ground, it still held enough danger to put Runa on edge, clearly not all of the Avengers were as trusting as she first thought.

Tony opened the door on his side of the vehicle, and Runa began to do the same. She stood out in front of the tower and her soon to be teammates, quickly fixing her skirt that had twisted during the car ride. She could feel the five pairs of eyes burning into her as she kept her own eyes focused on the ground, while her hands figeted with the sleeves of her jacket.

Stark had come round to her side of the limo and quickly leaned in to wisper in her ear. "Just show them what you got kid."

Runa loosened her shoulders, took a breath and began to walk forward, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the ground in front of her.

"Avengers, I would like you to meet our newest member." Stark said from his position beside Runa.

Runa only became aware of someone having approached her when a pair of shoes came into her line of vision. Rogers stood in front of her, hand outstretched. "Its great to meet you. I'm Steve, and this is Thor, Bruce, Natasha and Clint." Steve gestured to each person in turn.

"Thanks." Runa replied, shaking his hand, a small bit of confidence having returned to her. She finally brought her eyes up to meet Steve's. "They call me," she turned to address the rest of the team, "Trickster."


	2. Chapter 2

"They call me Trickster"

"They?" Steve looked taken aback - as did the rest of the team in fact - suddenly faced with not only an apparently strong fighter, but seemingly one with experience now too.

"Oh, you know, kids at the skatepark, locals, just... people." Runa felt herself smirk ever so slightly, and relax a bit when she saw the discomfort rolling through the heroes in front of her.

Steve laughed slightly, trying to ease his nerves a bit most likely, as well as the rest of his team's. "Alright Trickster, let's see what you can do."

"Cool, okay." Runa took a deep breath and shifted slightly so that her whole body was now under the shadow of the tower in front of her. Focusing her mind and her breathing, Runa leaned forward ever so slightly until she felt the familiar cooling sensation wash over her. Glancing at her hands, she was glad to see that they had lost all of their pigments, and that even the clothes on her back had changed from their usual mismatch of colours, to a plain grey-scale. She knew then, that if she had chosen to look behind her, she would have seen an exact copy of herself, standing, staring intently at the ground in front of it.

The Avengers continued to look at this shell as Runa began to make her way over to the base of the building, making sure to avoid touching any of the others and to remain fully submerged in shadow. Upon reaching the tower, she turned to lean against the great glass pane behind her, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets, and observed the heroes who now had their back to her - apart from Tony at least, who had witnessed this trick before, and now leaned against his limo with a smug smirk on his face.

Runa's manoeuvring had only taken in total about a minute, and soon each Avenger began to shift uncomfortably. Thor pushed himself from the tower and stepped forward slightly, while Runa noticed from the corner of her eye Clint pull the cord of his bow back ever so slightly. The muscles in Natasha's back rippled slightly and tensed under her skin-tight jumpsuit, while Bruce fidgeted with his glasses and then the buttons on his jacket.

"Eh, Trickster" Steve coughed a bit, clearly unnerved, glancing up at Tony before continuing. "Ar-are you okay?"

That had been the moment Runa had been waiting for, and with that, called her body back to her, subconsciously noting the cold sensation disappearing and the colour returning to the wisps of hair that now hung by her face; dislodged from behind her ear.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

The effect was electric, as each Avenger whipped around to stare, wide-eyed at where Runa now stood. Runa had less than a second to look smugly back at them before her heightened senses picked up the arrow that now flew from the startled Dead-Shot's bow directly towards the gap between her eyes. She threw her arms up in a cross in front of her, summoning a force field before her. A slight green glow appeared just as the arrow was about to pass by Runa's hands, stopping it mid air, before clattering to the ground.

There was a deafening silence in the great gardens in front of the tower as everyone tried to fully comprehend what had happened. With a slow, shaking breath, Runa ran her hand through her matted hair and tore her eyes from the arrow that lay at her feet. Her blood was pumping loudly through her ears and she could feel her whole body quivering with the inhuman amount of adrenaline that was now coursing through her veins.

"What the hell Clint?!" Tony was the first to fully recover, and was now moving angrily towards the archer. "Did you really feel the need to try and kill or maim the kid?"

Barton shifted his weight awkwardly from one foot to the other, and Runa felt herself pitying the man who was now being berated on her behalf. "I obviously didn't want to shoot the arrow at her, she just-"

"She just what?" Tony interjected. "She just scared you and intimidated you so much that you felt the need to visibly reject her by having an arrow notched before she even arrived. Are you really so -"

"Mister Stark, its cool!" Runa interrupted. "I'm okay, no harm done." Runa hated seeing Tony belittle Clint so much, all because she had wanted to look cool while introducing herself. Tony looked at her skeptically for a moment before throwing up his hands in defeat, shoving them into the pockets of his trousers and slowly wandering back to the limo, kicking at the ground as he went.

"Okay, so you can do force fields, and... teleport?" Steve was the first to speak and thankfully brought the attention away from the incident and back to Runa.

"I would tend to call it "shadow walking" since I can only do it if I stay fully covered in shadow. The figure of me that you could see over there" -she gestured to where her shell had been- "is just a mirage to be honest. It will disappear when I choose to become visible again, if someone tries to touch it, or if I accidentally move from shadows." Runa paused slightly before adding "Oh, I can also read minds and project images through contact, and my speed, strength and stamina are far greater than any human's."

"Wait, so you're not human?" Natasha spoke for the first time, eyeing the girl in front of her warily now.

"Not exactly.. I - its hard to explain."

"It's strange," Thor said, stroking his beard in a way that seemed almost comical to Runa. "Your powers seem so familiar to me. Are you sure that we have never met before?"

"No, we definitely haven't before now, Uncle Thor." Runa had been dreading revealing this bit of her heritage for quite a while now. It had been the main reason that she had turned down Tony Stark's initial offers to join the Avengers team. It wasn't exactly a secret that her dad wasn't exactly liked by the Avengers team, well not a secret for her anyway considering he told her himself last time he was on Earth.

"Huh, _uncle_ Thor. That's funny because calling me that would mean that you'd have to be..." Realisation swept over the great god's face, quickly followed by anger. "You mean to tell me that you... that he has been hiding a-a bastard, all this time!?" Thor yelled. He stuck his hand out and with a swishing sound, Mjolnir flew into his hand as he began to make his way towards Runa, who's hands began to shake again.

"Woah, woah, what's going on here?" Bruce looked between Thor and Runa, clearly nervous.

"This foolish, selfish, idiotic man," Thor pointed Mjolnir threateningly at Tony, "has brought to us the child of an enemy! He has doomed us all to betrayal and now the mission will never succeed and it will all have been pointless."

"You're being over dramatic, as usual." Tony brushed him off. "She will not compromise the mission and will not stab us in the back. It took me long enough to finally convince her to join us and I'm not just going to let her go."

Runa coughed awkwardly. "I'm right here you know!" Her hand was still shaking a bit, so she shoved it into her pocket.

"Can someone please tell us what is going on?" Steve sounded exasperated as he butted in on Tony and Thor who were still bickering. There was a moment of silence, before everyone turned to look at Runa.

"My real name is Runa Lokidotr, meaning that my dad is -"

"Loki." Natasha finished, looking shocked. "So, does that make you a ... god?"

Realisation crept over each face in front of Runa, well each of them apart from Tony and Thor of course, who knew better already.

"No, no,-heh- I what they call a demigod. I have a few powers, super strength and all the stuff I told you about before, as well as a weird adrenaline kick I get when I could be in danger or need to fight. My whole body starts to shake really badly and my senses are heightened even more than usual. Same thing happens when I experience really strong emotions, namely anger. Sooo... yeah." Runa rocked awkwardly back and forth on the balls of her feet, trying to calm herself down, willing the shakes to go away. She glanced at Tony, willing him to take control of the situation now that introductions had been made.

Thor had yet to stand down, and there was still a foul look on his face. For the first time that day, Runa really, genuinely wished that she had stayed at the skatepark. She really just wanted to go back to the kids, impressing them with new tricks and insuring that they could try new ones themselves without the fear of getting hurt. Glancing up at the great tower that was soon to be her home for the foreseeable future, she also felt a great wave of homesickness for the bakery/cafe that she crashed in for the last few years wash over her.

Even though she had worried about him reaction to their familial connection, Runa had never fathomed that Thor would be quite this enraged, and she was now growing worried about her future here as an Avenger. Would she always be an outsider to the team? the other Avengers afraid to show any kindness or sympathy towards her due to their previous loyalties to the god, and be slower to rush to her aid in battle and so result in her injury or doom.

Just as Runa was on the crest of her imminent panic attack, Tony stepped to her side. "Look, we don't have time to make a group decision about Runa joining the team, she stays and that's final. Have you all forgotten that as we waste time here, Loki's sceptre is still missing, and most likely in Hydra hands." The rest of the team sheepishly averted their gaze before Tony placed his hand protectively on Runa's shoulder, turning her slightly to look at him directly so he could address her individually. "Ok kid, lets get you settled in."

Runa felt the majority of her anxieties sink away with the weight of Tony's calloused hand on her shoulder. She was then turned towards the door of the tower and lead past the other Avengers. Great glass doors hissed slightly as they slid open before the two of them and a great whoosh of air conditioning hit Runa's face.

 _"Here's to a new home,"_ Runa thought to herself as she was lead deeper into the building; only barely aware of the five sets of footsteps that slowly, almost unwillingly began to follow them in.


End file.
